1. The Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to information management. More particularly, embodiments of the invention relate to systems and methods for delegating discovery functions of an information management system in a computing environment.
2. The Relevant Technology
The world is slowly and continually moving from being paper-based to being electronic-based and this is becoming apparent in a wide variety of different systems. Businesses, schools, and even home life are transitioning to electronic systems. For example, email is becoming a primary means of communication rather than sending regular mail. Bills are paid online. Airlines often prefer electronic ticketing and online check-in. The list goes on. There are several reasons for this transition, one of which is the convenience and accessibility of electronic systems. Email, for example, often arrives shortly after sending it.
As entities become more centered on electronic data, the ability to manage the electronic data becomes crucial for a wide variety of different reasons. Much of the electronic data maintained by an entity or organization often relates to different aspects of the entity and often is subject to various considerations.
Further, much of the data is unstructured at least in the sense that the data's value to the entity is not readily known and the services required for the data are not necessarily known. For example, an entity may have a file storage system that it backs up on a regular basis. However, there may be many files on the file storage system that have little or no value to the entity. As a result, the entity is often paying for services that are not required. Further, there may be files that contain certain information that subjects those files to certain regulations. Because the content of those files is unknown, the files are not receiving adequate services, thereby subjecting the entity to potential liability.
More generally, there are a number of different factors that may determine how certain data is handled or that determine the services that are needed for the data. Some of the factors or considerations include data security, data backup, data retention, data access control, regulatory compliance, corporate compliance, and the like or any combination thereof.
Various information management systems and methods exist, some of which may address these and other factors and considerations. Notably, however, the amount of electronic data that can be managed by an information management system is often limited by the physical limits of the hardware implementing the information management system. For instance, an information management server is necessarily limited in the amount of electronic data it can manage by, among other things, its processors and other hardware. Thus, the scalability of an information management system is an important consideration for entities desiring to implement information management in a network.
Two conventional scaling solutions often implemented include scaling up and scaling out. Scaling up, for example, includes implementing the information management system in a server with faster hardware. Often, however, the cost of scaling up can be prohibitively high. Scaling out involves replicating the information management server and distributing the work across the resulting server instances, with each server instance managing a subset of a network, or partitioning/separating out low-level information management functions to other servers. In the case of the former, the use of multiple information management servers can present integration difficulties and in the case of the latter, high-level functions not partitioned to the other servers still require significant computing resources from the information management server.
In sum, the data of an entity is an important asset and should be properly safeguarded. This means that services such as backup, retention, encryption, etc., need to be obtained and orchestrated such that entities have neither too little nor too many services for their data. Furthermore, conventional information management systems do not offer entities sufficient scalability. As a result, these entities are forced to implement non-optimized scaling solutions when they exceed the physical limits of their information management systems. Entities need a way to manage their data so as to comply with all relevant requirements without purchasing too many services and without providing insufficient services. Entities also need a way to scale their information management systems as conditions in the entity change.